Two new battery recycling plants are set to open in the Black Country in the coming weeks.
Recyclus is launching a new facility in Tipton next week which will recycle lead-acid batteries while a second lithium-ion recycling facility is due to open later in February in Wolverhampton.
The Tipton plant aims to increase Recyclus' lead-acid battery recycling production capacity from an estimated 16,000 tonnes in the first full year of production to circa 80,000 tonnes by 2027.
The company said it was designed to process up to 12 tonnes an hour of all types of lead-acid batteries and will have a fully automated, modular system capable of recycling the units without any gas or particle emissions going into the atmosphere.
The process breaks down the entire battery into separate constituent parts and recovers lead, acid and plastic materials which can be re-used to support a wide range of industries.
Hard lead can be used in grids and terminals, soft lead in battery paste and the sulphuric acid can be turned into fertilisers for agricultural use, electrolytes for the construction of fibre boards.
Further details about the new plant in Wolverhampton will be released by the company in due course.
Recyclus is part of the London-based listed Technology Minerals group which is aiming to create a sustainable circular economy for battery metals.
Chairman Robin Brundle said: "With the opening of the lead-acid plant at Tipton, Recyclus are industrialising and mechanising a long-established industry that has traditionally been very labour intensive.
"The efficiencies of the plant, combined with Recyclus' processes, really modernise the sector and will assist in reducing the number of batteries that are either incinerated or, worse still, sent to landfill.
"The UK has been in dire need of industrial-scale battery recycling technologies and the opening of this new plant at Tipton will help to provide a national capability to recycle lead-acid batteries.
"This is the first of ten plants Recyclus expects to open over the next six years to be a first mover in the battery recycling sector."
